ANDREW JONES

West 15th Street Railings, 2008

oil on canvas30 x 40 inches

Private collection.

342 West 15th Street, ca. 1842

The term “plain" style, which I use to describe several of the iron patterns of the early 1840s, borrows from the term used at the time for the furniture of the mid and late 1830s. Also, known as “pillar and scroll” this style of furniture abandoned the elaborate classical ornamentat in favor of smooth surfaces, turned columns, and scrolled supports. Similarly, the “plain style” in iron is often dominated by bands of scrolls or frets and simple square or round spindles. Cast panels of anthemions, popular in the late 1830s, no longer appear.